Tales from the Raven

Another great study in the science of ‘duh’ has found that Celebrities are more narcissitic than average folks.  They’re defining narcissism as self-love.
Of course, when I saw this I thought, ‘Okay, tell me what else is new,’ but then I got to thinking about the whole issue.  Why is it so obvious?  Because they only talk about [...]

Here’s more on the pirate love affair, in celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day.  I mentioned the American (and perhaps more global) fascination with pirates in my blog on video piracy, but apparently I posted early.  Happy Pirate Day, or–
Ha’ye a good ‘ole haul, me maties!

I’ve been of two minds as to whether to send my Keela story (Mermaid chick) to this quarter’s Writers of the Future contest.  I really don’t think it’s their cup of tea.  But my other stories aren’t ready to go, and it’s really hard to say what they’ll find palatable, so… Keela gets the honor of facing [...]

Who else thought, “Aww, the guy’s getting downsized,” when Pluto got bumped out of the planet category?  All my life I’ve enjoyed the fact that our solar system wound itself up with a quirky little rock that zipped through a crazy orbit–kind of cool, really.
While we lived in the DC suburbs the kids took us to [...]

Delirium >n. an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is chartacterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech.
2-wild excitement or ecstasy.
–Origin mid 16th cent.: from Latin, delirare ‘deviate, be deranged’ (literally ‘deviate from the furrow’), from de- ‘away’ + lira ‘ridge between furrows.’
Quoll >n. a catlike, carnivorous marsupial [...]

” . . . and now, on behalf of the KIP foundation, we’d like to announce the Grand Prize winner–Jane Sowers!”
Jane leaped from her seat and clambored up the stairs to the dias.  She turned to face the audience, her face flushed and eyes bright.
“Oh, wow–wow,” she said.  “Thanks, everybody, but especially the truly important ones like my [...]

The Pros:  The characters were true individuals, with their own motivation.  The graphic portrayal of their powers worked, and the actors did a good job at looking like they really were using that ability just then.  It had some funny scenes that brought a laugh, and some witty lines.  The scene, near the end, showing the effort Susan Storm put [...]

Before watching Fantastic Four last night (I’ll blog a review later), we were shown a little clip intending to discourage video/dvd piracy.  The clip flashed with scenes of someone’s purse being stolen, then another theft (a car?) and tables where bootlegged dvds were being sold.
Now, let me quickly say that I have never knowingly used ripped-off or bootlegged copies of videos and [...]

Anybody else old enough to remember the Paul Simon song by that name?  I never did understand all the words, but it was fun to sing.
Now I’ve come across some info that says some people don’t have fingerprints, and the people at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have found out what causes it.   Apparently it’s caused [...]

Anyone who’s noticed I had a very long blogroll with only a handful of actual blogs in it will now notice it has shrunk. 
I’ve created a Links page, at the top, and moved all my potential publisher and sf happenings, etc., links over there.